Bedford Schools To Make Decision On Buildings Dec. 18

The Bedford Public Schools Board of Education Thursday night unanimously accepted the findings of a facilities study that could change the layout of the district drastically.

The board then set a special meeting for Dec. 18 to decide how to proceed.

The study, which was completed in November by Plante Moran CRESA, a Southfield real estate consulting company, gave a detailed overview of the condition of all of the district’s school buildings and indicated critical improvements that needed to be made.

The district could pay to renovate the structures, address only the critical issues found, including fixing cracked structural beams and bringing buildings up to fire and safety codes by adding sprinklers and fixing stairwell safety rails.

A second option has the board “reinventing” the district by demolishing Douglas Road, Jackman Road and the closed Temperance Road elementary school buildings and erecting a new one, while performing drastic remodeling to Bedford Junior High and High School and reopening and adding on to the former Smith Road Elementary.

President Mike Smith assured the small crowd who attended the meeting Thursday that the board plans to keep the community involved as it decides how to act and moving forward once the decision has been made.

Addressing those issues could cost the district anywhere between $27 million and $64 million. In order to reinvent the district, the Bedford community would have to pass a bond issue that would add a 2.5-mill increase to the current 1.68-mill debt retirement levy on the tax rolls.